A really gloomy day with rain arriving just after 6.30am. It was then a case of showers passing through on a regular basis, with some being quite heavy.
Arctic Tern: one flew SW at 6.30am.
Common Tern: pair on the lake.
Tree Pipit: two flew north.
Grey Wagtail: one was on the mud in area 2.
Reed Warbler: five birds were singing.
Sedge Warbler: one was in the bamboo thickets at the end of the lake (deadmans corner), area 34.
Willow Warbler: one was in area 2 this morning.
Linnet: 2 birds flew through.
Bushy Park
Osprey: one flew south passed my window, well almost, it just cleared the Lime Trees as a Crow hassled it at 1.40pm.
Peregrine: a male worried the Swifts at 11.10am.
Swift: 80 birds were over the Diana Fountain most of the day.
Northern Wheatear: 2 birds were present one in area 1 and another in area 13.
Comments
Warm, wet and muggy overnight with rain ending before 06.45. Winds strong from SW but little obvious migration in the Park, apart from house martins, swallows and swifts. (On the other hand, Dave got word of a mass grounding in the Orkney Islands this morning of Scandinavia-bound migrants (including common redstarts, pied flycatchers, whinchats and ring ouzels in double-figure numbers so there could have been a major overflight of birds overnight, capitalising on the strong southwesterlies).
Garden Warbler 1: male singing for a few minutes in area 9 at The Holme perimeter fence.
Happily, I was able to compare this species' song with that of a Blackcap nearby. It was a rapid, continuous, mellow warble, varied and quite lengthy but without the Blackcap's interjected, scratchy high notes, and noticeably lower-pitched overall. I'm quite relieved that I could pick out the Garden Warbler's richer tones from the emphatic harshness of the dozens of Blackcap songsters in the Park. [Coincidentally, the North American bird whose song the Garden Warbler's most reminds me of is likewise the epitome of mousy drabness without field marks, the Warbling Vireo (a close relative of New World warblers). However, the vireo prefers the high canopy of shade trees rather than scrubby undergrowth like the Garden Warbler.]
Pied Wagtail 2: area 9 (mother feeding recently-fledged youngster [presumably from nest S of Clarence Terrace] at lake shoreline, 08.05.
Happily, the two Red-crested Pochard ducklings have survived the last 24 hours and were still being guarded by their parents this morning.
Wisteria boughs overhanging the entrance to the St John's Lodge garden, area 29, are beginning to flower. European Redbud is blooming.